Lowell George: Thanks, I'll Eat It Here

[alyn]

recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/17359

Well this is bitter sweet, for me. Well, 95% bitter.

Thank's I'll Eat It Here is one of my favourite albums ever - Little Feat (with Lowell) are my favourite band and I have built a pretty comprehensive collection of live and rare recordings over the years.
The 2023 Deluxe re-issues of Sailin' Shoes and Dixie Chicken on Rhino were excellent (and Electrif Lycanthrope) and 2024 we were promised Thanks, I'll Eat It Here and Feats Don't Fail Me now.

However - it is RSD vinyl only for Thanks, I'll Eat It Here, and almost certainly no CD version in the pipeline (according to a source at Rhino).

I haven't played vinyl since the late 1980s - only setting up a turntable to burn a few bootleg LPs to CD. Definitely not high-spec and not for everyday listening to records, I had no need for that.
I thoroughly disliked the faddy vinyl resurgence and have delighted in the fact the buyers pulled along by the nose have had to pay huge amounts for vinyl.
My ears for music quality have never been as finely tuned as those who bought / buy expensive hi fi units - I actually feel that it is all about the music rather than the intricate sound details.
Back in the day when records were the only option I loved them but I could only afford cheap record players, and in my experience no matter how well I looked after records, scratches appeared from day one and annoyed from there on.
I thoroughly embraced the advent of CDs and the ability to listen to a whole album in one session, amongst many other qualities. I did miss LP covers as they were mostly a joy to hold and look at.

So this is pissing me off.
There could well be a download version at some point further down the line, but that feels like a chilly damp squib compared to a wonderful deluxe CD edition with all those extras.

[MokyWI]

I bought the re-issue of Lowell’s solo album on vinyl a couple years ago. It is also one of my favorite albums as well.

[warren]

I feel your heartache. No doubt with the advent of AI as it improves will create a listening experience better than anything we have heard so far including vinyl.  It will create the best of the best and be at a reasonable price, maybe.  Greed being greed may or may not be a factor but easy money is. That is if we live long enough to see it God Willin. Eat healthy but it is easy to slip..just don't eat it here.

[RobGNYC]

How is AI relevant to discussion of a Lowell George album on vinyl vs. CD?

[alyn]

Feb 17, 2024 8:55:46 GMT -5 MokyWI said:

I bought the re-issue of Lowell’s solo album on vinyl a couple years ago. It is also one of my favorite albums as well.

Yeah ... I think the criticism on release was that it took so long, was cobbled together in the end from many sessions, lack of slide guitar and Lowell original songs.

But... like you, I think it's a true classic, Lowell never sang better, the arrangements are close to perfect, it is perfectly balanced, there is enough eccentricity to give it the Lowell 'stamp', and it's just a total joy from start to finish. It deserves far more recognition than it gets.

Lowell was a perfectionist and would not let anything out of the studio until he was 100% happy but he lost control of Little Feat, and worse of all - to my mind - would never have let his songs that were posthumously included on Down On The Farm anywhere near release.

Hence he worked on Thanks I'll Eat It Here to his opinion of perfection and to me it shows.

I always felt Heartache was somewhat limp and it really didn't warrant inclusion as an extra track on the CD.

[alyn]

Feb 17, 2024 10:41:44 GMT -5 RobGNYC said:

How is AI relevant to discussion of a Lowell George album on vinyl vs. CD?

You said it Rob... that posting was totally mystifying :-)